Thanks to hopdog for this...
Appears a hazy caramel color with a mild tan head. Scattered lacing is left behind.
Smell is of caramel, toffee, mild cherries, and fresh, sugary dough.
Taste is of caramel, dough, mild oak, and spices.
Mouthfeel...still slightly hot with lots of sugary malt. ABV is evident in this one. (320 characters)

Poured a deep oragish/amber color with an averaged sized off white head. Aroams of strong caramel, toffee, some dark fruits, and a little earthy. Tastes of caramel, cherries, and citrus. Medium alcohol in the finish.

Pours with a low but dense fine-bubbled tan head. Maybe an inch and it hangs on with a pretty good cling as I sip. The beer itself pours a clear deep amber with ruby highlights. At least, it was clear until I dumped some of the yeast in. Beware! This is properly bottle conditioned with a substantial sediment.

Nice rich aroma of toast, sugar and baked apples with hints of papaya and a little banana.

More toast and brown sugar in the mouth then a shocking punch of sour! Doesn't seem to be contaminated, not a sharp lactic or vinegary acetic sourness, but seems to be a function of the intense fruit flavors in the beer led by a big wallop of red grapes. Unusual to be sure and possibly colored by the dollop of yeast. Very well balanced with just enough bittering hops to keep the malt in check. Long finish with a growing sense of oak and red grapeskin. Gentle and mild alcohol leaves a nice comforting warmth.

Full-bodied with medium-low carbonation. Both chalky and very creamy. Luscious. In spite of the sour, oak, and grapeskin, there is no detectable astringence. The full body and intense flavors predictably hurt drinkability, but that's not a bad thing when there is so much to think about here. Any lover of old ales , and that is truly the correct designation here, should be happy to spend an hour with this beer. (1,331 characters)

Pours a semi-hazy copper color crowned with a faint and lacy, off white head. Big and sweet malty aromas flow from the glass and hint at the flavor which is also sweet and grainy. The body is light with low levels of carbonation and has just a light tart taste and a kiss of alcohol. The finish is sweet and warms as the flavor concludes. The end is gentle but relatively short. (378 characters)

a dark ruby color. hardly any head at all. a very weak think layer of eggshell head.

S.

The aroma I'm getting is green grapes. It smells EXACTLY like tart green grapes. Not really much else I'm getting at all other than a tad bit of alcohol.

T.

Sweet boozy green grapes. Some bitterness at the end, but that's about all I get. A little disappointing. From other reviews, I don't really detect what others are getting from this. Perhaps it's because this is a new batch??

M.

about medium bodied. hardly any carbonation. The alcohol leaves a bit of warmth in the mouth.

D.

not impressed. I had some decent expectations with this. LaPorte is my hometown but this is one of my least favorite brews from them. Just taste like boozy green grapes. It's only available in the fall but I highly doubt I'd get another bottle of this. I have 1 bottle left that I may cellar for a year or so. very disappointing with this brew. (950 characters)

S: Smells like banana bread. If I use my imagination, I can conjure cherry and caramel. But that is probably my imagination succumbing to the label's suggestion that No. 9 is a barleywine.

T: Banana nut bread up front, which is enjoyable. But that is quickly bulldozed by a mouthful of bitter, prickly weeds. Finish is long, dry and weedy.

M: Above average carbonation for a barleywine and a bit gritty. Alchohol rubs the weedy sensation into my gullet.

D: Are you kidding me? A real chore to work through this beer.

No. 9 is neither an American Barleywine (no bright hops) nor an English Barleywine (no rich and decadent malts). So what is it? A super bitter dunkelweizen seems to be the best description. Not very good, in other words. (1,027 characters)

A- Pours a darker crismon color. Half finger eggshell white head shows poor retention. Specks of lace fall into the glass when I drink this one.

S- Light darker fruit with hints of caramel bready malts. Toward the middle I get a little bit of cereal grain for a split second then some green grape aroma. The sweet malts make their way to the end where I am greeted with a boozy alcohol aroma that tingles the nose.

T- Sweet malts right up front with a clean darker fruit (plums and cherry) flavor running beside it. This dies down to give off a grainy middle almost like sucking on some barley. Backend regains a little what it had and there is a light citrus undertone from what seems to be hops finally showing their face. Sweet malt gives a little extra flavor to the backend before it all gets washed away under a medium alcohol bite.

M- Medium mouthfeel. Carbonation is good for the style. Caramel malts and hints of grain are left on the palate with light darker fruit. Aftertaste is mostly warming alcohol, hint of citrus and light caramel malts. Flavors were a little rocky and jumped about a bit. No off flavors were detected unless you call that grainy flavor an off flavor. Medium heavy alcohol drying on the palate.

O- Overall this to me felt like a run of the mill barleywine. It falls in place with some other offerings I've had from breweries of the same size. I would gladly drink another pint of it but I might want to seek something else out first. (1,498 characters)

Bought this on a whim, because Back Road beers cost an atrocious amount by the sixer and this was the only single I could find. Didn't bother to read that it was a Barley Wine, either--No. 9 sounds like the name of a porter to me--so I poured it into a big old pint glass.

Nice pour, all things considering. Good head for its ABV, dark red and lightly hazy.

Smells smooth, big sweet malt with a kick of citrus hop in the back. Kinda like a blend between an ABW and an EBW.

I was gonna say that it tastes well and then I looked at the bottle it says Vintage 1999. Jesus! It's rare to get a 10-year-old BW at random from a the singles rack at the liquor store--I don't think this was intentional, either. Hmm...

Uhh, getting back to the review. My guess is this is a solid American BW when it's not a decade old, but it apparently mellows out okay. (934 characters)